1. Field
The present general inventive concept relates to a fixing apparatus adopting a resistive heating layer, and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus supplies toner to an electrostatic latent image formed on an image receptor to form a visual toner image on the image receptor, transfers the toner image to a recording medium, and fixes the transferred toner image to the recording medium. Toner is manufactured by adding various functional additives such as a coloring agent to a base resin. A fixing process includes a process of applying heat and pressure to the toner.
Generally, a fixing apparatus includes a heating roller and a pressing roller engaging with each other to form a fixing nip. While the recording medium, to which the toner is transferred, passes through the fixing nip, heat and pressure are applied to the toner. A heat source such as a halogen lamp is disposed on a center portion of a cylindrical heating roller to heat the heating roller via convection and radiation using air as a medium. In such a fixing apparatus, since heat is transferred from the heat source to the heating roller via the air as a medium, it is difficult to expect high heat efficiency. Additionally, the halogen lamp emits a substantial amount of visible rays that are not very effective to provide heat in comparison to infrared light. Thus, a substantial amount of power is consumed. Furthermore, since a heat capacity of such a heating roller is high, a rapid rise in its temperature may not be easily obtained.